TAMPA, Fla. – When Mark Teixeira learned he would play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, he placed a call to Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long. He hoped to marry a pair of pursuits: To represent his country well, and to extinguish his lengthy string of slow starts.

“Let’s not build up to Opening Day,” Teixeira said Sunday, when explaining his message to Long. “Let’s build up to the WBC. Let’s build up to the first of March.”

As Teixeira begins his fifth season as a Yankee, he’s looking to stabilize a career he admits is in decline. His on-base plus slugging percentage was a career-low .807 last season. Teixeira is notorious for lacking production in the season’s first month. In his career, his on-base plus slugging percentage in April is .766 – 130 points below his career average.

To prevent a repeat performance, he curtailed his offseason weight-lifting. The program was designed to build strength for the 162-game season, “and I think because of that, [in] maybe April I’m a little tight, I’m a little sore.”

In addition, Teixeira has winnowed his focus. He understands his ability as a hitter has devolved. From 2005 to 2009, he batted .297. Since then, his batting average has fallen to .252. He believes he can hit better, but his focus will be on homers, RBI and playing excellent defense at first. Teixeira hit 24 homers and drove in 84 runs last season, in a campaign shortened by a calf injury in September.

“I want [the batting average] to come back,” he said. “I do. But I’m not going to change my entire game plan, and change my entire approach, just to try to get a few points on the average – if the home runs and RBI suffer because of it. At the beginning of last season, they were. The home runs and RBI were suffering because I was trying to do things with the bat that I wasn’t used to doing.”

Teixeira chastised himself for neglecting to take care of the nagging calf strain that ruined his final month of the year.

“I never want to be hurt again,” he said. “But I’ve got to be a little smarter about that. Don’t play through so many injuries. Let your body heal, those type of things.”